Tim Schafer Says Games Must Avoid Self-Censorship

One of game's funniest writers says it, it must be true...

…and we’re not joking. Tim Schafer is among a select few of the funniest writers in gaming. The man is potentially only matched by his peer, Ron Gilbert. And, sure, while not all of his games are smash hits, the majority of the work out of Double Fine is damn good.

In an interview with CVG, Schafer explains that some funny games could be considerably funnier if they only avoided the nasty plague of self-censorship. According to Schafer, a lot of stuff is left on the cutting room floor simply because developers don’t want to offend anyone. We’re talking stuff that could elevate the humor of a product significantly.

"…avoid self-censorship. There are a lot of funny people in the games industry, and [they seem to] think of the funny thing, and then say: ‘No, I can’t do that. Let’s cut that out because someone might be bothered by that.’ I think if people censored themselves less there’d be a lot more funny stuff out there."

Admitedly, there are some projects out there that feel as if they’ve been slighted of their potential prowess when it comes to humor. Then there’s games like Bulletstorm which wear their offensiveness as a badge of honor. And, to be frank, we’re not sure which version of reality is better.